Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: kd0s+@andrew.cmu.edu (Karen Yvonne Daly) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Shroud of Turin Message-ID: Date: 24 Jun 89 05:34:24 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 24 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu _Finally, Scripture is pretty clear that the wounds were in Christ's_ __hands_, not his wrists (Jn 20:25-27)._ Actually, the word translated "hands" in the Greek meant the part of the body from the fingertips to the elbow. It's impossible to nail someone up by the hands as the flesh there is not strong enough to hold the nail. The weight of one's arm is sufficient to tear the flesh off the nail. (sorry for the gory image) [There is an article in the most recent Bible Review that supports the traditional idea of nails through the hands. It includes detailed physiological examination of the hands, and the results of some experiments. I don't recall exactly how they verified that a nail through the hands could support a body, but I recall that they did. One of the experiments involved suspending volunteers from a cross, using an glove arrangement that attached the hands in the same position as nails would (obviously they didn't want to nail the volunteers to the cross). This experiment exploded the common claim that people would be unable to breathe when suspended from the cross. (The original claims apparently were based on observations of punishments that were not quite equivalent to crucifixion.) --clh]